Winter 2025/26 on-sale dates

[sweep2907]

1 hour ago, bee-ess said:

We went to Ochos Rios, (which is near to Dunns River Falls, famous for the Dr No movie) in 2007 on Arcadia. This was a standard 2 week fly cruise, P&O had much more varied Caribbean cruises back then.

This was the itinerary then

 

Love that itinerary and wonder why they gone away from those sorts of stops. Other lines like RC and Celebrity visit some of those regularly on their cruises.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

It is the other way round actually with Iona going to 10 ports and Venture to 13 ports, though Iona is spending two days in Barbados, so 11 port days over the 10 ports. Iona is also stopping at two ports on the return, (Tenerife and La Coruna), rather than the usual one day stop on the trans Atlantic, so a fair bit less time in the Caribbean ports, yet a long cruise.  Clearly designed as destination ship.

 

Iona may be more limited in where she can dock.  There will be a lot of cabins to fill and so soon after Christmas as well, which some people would not want to do and many would have to travel to the port the day after New Years day.

 

Yes, the same with the two 2025 35 nighters. If you look at the Caribbean port calls only, Ventura has 11 different port calls, whereas Iona only has 7. A massive difference seeing as the two cruises are exactly the same duration. 

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

It is the other way round actually with Iona going to 10 ports and Venture to 13 ports, though Iona is spending two days in Barbados, so 11 port days over the 10 ports. Iona is also stopping at two ports on the return, (Tenerife and La Coruna), rather than the usual one day stop on the trans Atlantic, so a fair bit less time in the Caribbean ports, yet a long cruise.  Clearly designed as destination ship.

 

Iona may be more limited in where she can dock.  There will be a lot of cabins to fill and so soon after Christmas as well, which some people would not want to do and many would have to travel to the port the day after New Years day.

 

Thanks Barbara - I was going between the two itineraries and counted several times. Obviously managed to get them mixed up...

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

It is the other way round actually with Iona going to 10 ports and Venture to 13 ports, though Iona is spending two days in Barbados, so 11 port days over the 10 ports. Iona is also stopping at two ports on the return, (Tenerife and La Coruna), rather than the usual one day stop on the trans Atlantic, so a fair bit less time in the Caribbean ports, yet a long cruise.  Clearly designed as destination ship.

 

Iona may be more limited in where she can dock.  There will be a lot of cabins to fill and so soon after Christmas as well, which some people would not want to do and many would have to travel to the port the day after New Years day.

 

Is New Year something special?

[terrierjohn]

52 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, the same with the two 2025 35 nighters. If you look at the Caribbean port calls only, Ventura has 11 different port calls, whereas Iona only has 7. A massive difference seeing as the two cruises are exactly the same duration. 

Some of us oldies do enjoy relaxing sea days though  Selbourne.

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Some of us oldies do enjoy relaxing sea days though  Selbourne.

😂 Understand that, whereas we view sea days as a means to an end in getting to ports! Besides, you could always stay on the ship in the extra ports. Surely better than a sea day, as the ship would be much quieter and you’d at least have something to look at? 😉

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, Selbourne said:

😂 Understand that, whereas we view sea days as a means to an end in getting to ports! Besides, you could always stay on the ship in the extra ports. Surely better than a sea day, as the ship would be much quieter and you’d at least have something to look at? 😉

Don't get me wrong, I also like port days, but I can accept a couple less port days, especially when the price is so competitive.

[gsmt47471015]

Sea days are very objective, however we don't mind a few if the weather is decent and we can sit out ,however having completed some seven and eight sea days on the bounce ,usually returning to the uk,  we are more than happy to get off the ship.  

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Sea days are very objective, however we don't mind a few if the weather is decent and we can sit out ,however having completed some seven and eight sea days on the bounce ,usually returning to the uk,  we are more than happy to get off the ship.  

I do agree that returning from the Caribbean is not as enjoyable as heading there, but I am hoping that Iona's more southerly route via Tenerife will mean that the weather will be better than via the Azores.

[tring]

We are now Caribbean level and would like to go into the booking system to see what cabins are available on our specific Azura cruise Tues morning (they always block some cabins off as the cruises overlap), but I know you cannot normally see those availabilities on the website until the cruises go on general sale.  Is there anyway of letting the system know you are eligible for early booking, without actually confirming a new cruise booking? 

 

I normally log in using various booking references, but can only see the cruise with that booking reference and general loyalty level details, so not sure logging in would work.

[Presto2]

We have been looking at a number of cruises on Azura and are surprised at the number where most balcony cabins are already taken. This is not in the school holidays so we are surprised to say the least. Are they just releasing a few cabins at a time? If so this is really annoying as we know the cabins we want and aren't sure now what really is available.

[kermchem]

8 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

We have been looking at a number of cruises on Azura and are surprised at the number where most balcony cabins are already taken. This is not in the school holidays so we are surprised to say the least. Are they just releasing a few cabins at a time? If so this is really annoying as we know the cabins we want and aren't sure now what really is available.

My understanding is that Azura winter fly-cruises from Tenerife are available for 7 days and 14 days, with departures from Tenerife on both Friday and Saturday. The P&O IT system seems to assign an individual cabin to only one of the cruises that might be running at any one time. Indeed there are probably Friday cabins and Saturday cabins. So when you look at a Friday departure at least all the Saturday cabins appear to be taken, and I wonder if when you look at a 7 day cruise then the 14 day cabins also appear taken.

[Presto2]

Is it me, or are the prices for the cruises expensive at the moment? It is usually cheaper to book early, but I can't see it this time. Just curious what others think.

[Selbourne]

10 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Is it me, or are the prices for the cruises expensive at the moment? It is usually cheaper to book early, but I can't see it this time. Just curious what others think.

We spent ages looking at the new launch cruises and came to the same conclusion. The ones that we short listed were no cheaper than the same cruises for the year before, so we couldn’t see any advantage to booking so far out. Furthermore, our last few bookings have been after balance due date at massive savings. Amazingly we even managed to get accessible balcony cabins. We always booked at launch and the prices were never bettered, but that seems to be in the past now.  As a result, we won’t be booking anything from this release. Going forward, unless it’s a unique itinerary at a cracking launch price we will probably do late bookings from now on. 

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

We spent ages looking at the new launch cruises and came to the same conclusion. The ones that we short listed were no cheaper than the same cruises for the year before, so we couldn’t see any advantage to booking so far out. Furthermore, our last few bookings have been after balance due date at massive savings. Amazingly we even managed to get accessible balcony cabins. We always booked at launch and the prices were never bettered, but that seems to be in the past now.  As a result, we won’t be booking anything from this release. Going forward, unless it’s a unique itinerary at a cracking launch price we will probably do late bookings from now on. 

Thanks, that's what we were thinking. We retire at Christmas (have we mentioned this before ;-)) so will be more flexible so will hold fire.

[Megabear2]

The prices are higher.  It was stated by Paul Ludlow in September that now they have a stronger balance sheet it was intended to raise prices.  He also said he wanted ships sailing at 100% and will be flexible as necessary.

 

Select fares are higher, if you are prepared to wait and not choose specific cabins you can get bargains on the saver fare - these are being triggered 7 days after final payment date and are indeed bargains.

 

Personally I won't be booking any P&O cruise a long time before departure.  

[tring]

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

We have been looking at a number of cruises on Azura and are surprised at the number where most balcony cabins are already taken. This is not in the school holidays so we are surprised to say the least. Are they just releasing a few cabins at a time? If so this is really annoying as we know the cabins we want and aren't sure now what really is available.

 

For most Azura cruises each week is available in three ways. As the one week cruise, a two week with the previous week and a two week with the following week and there are certain cabins allocated for each of those options.  The trans locations between the seasons take nine days, which are available as a nine night cruise a 15 night when you leave the ship on arrival at Tenerife ready for disembarkation and 16 night when you have a day in Tenerife and leave the next day.

 

  We have booked a deck C balcony, (which are popular as they have massive balconies), for a two week cruise at the end of the summer 2025 season and want to book the  16 night translocation, in the same cabin if possible, as a back to back.  If our cabin is not available on the 16 night, it may be on the 15 night.  We can discuss this with the agent once a cabin has been saved for us, but I would have liked to see what is available previously as we may change our request to the 15 night one, if our booked cabin Is only available for that 15 nighter.  It could also be allocated to the 9 night, but we are hoping not, as it was available for two weeks for the previous cruise.  Even our agent explained that lack of cabin availability on Azura but we knew how it worked.

 

Regards availability of the cruises already in sale, I do agree there is still a fair bit of availability, even some dec C balconies for Oct 2024, yet about three years back, we pre booked a translocation on Azura and by the time we were allocated a cabin (late morning on the day everyone could book), deck C balconies were not available, though we were able to transfer to one at a later date.  We are happy to have these arranged ahead though.

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by tring

[kermchem]

Ok, so when Azura leaves Tenerife on a Saturday with pax who have been on board for eight nights, a week, a night or just arrived, and you can book some speciality dining from home two weeks before your cruise “departs”, how does this work? We are booked on the Tenerife to Malta repo in March 2024, Saturday flight, so among the last to either board the ship or find the booking window opens. 

[swanseaboy]

Currently onboard Arcadia so today I popped to the loyalty desk for a price for Arvia transatlantic October 2025. As a solo in a double balcony - £2,600 which includes the 10% discount. Ludicrous. As a comparison, the same cruise, Arvia to Caribbean leaving in 2 weeks (which I’m booked on) are currently offering solo in a double balcony for £1,600 saving £1,000. You’d be crazy to book early in my opinion. The early booking fare included around £65 onboard spend. Wowzers. 

[pete14]

10 hours ago, kermchem said:

Ok, so when Azura leaves Tenerife on a Saturday with pax who have been on board for eight nights, a week, a night or just arrived, and you can book some speciality dining from home two weeks before your cruise “departs”, how does this work? We are booked on the Tenerife to Malta repo in March 2024, Saturday flight, so among the last to either board the ship or find the booking window opens. 

We are on the same cruise next year and we’re wondering the same thing. As we are in a suite, I was hoping that as a last resort, the butler may be able to exert some influence on making bookings onboard for us.

[carlanthony24]

Bookings will still be open we joined in Malta last Thursday. People joined a week or 2 before us. The speciality restaurants are not fully booked up loads of space. Bookings do open on the cruise personaliser 2 weeks before.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

If you are flexible then booking late seems to be the best option. However it can be troublesome for those of.us who have children and are limited to school holidays. 

We looked at an xmas cruise to carribean 2225 and decided no way would.i pay what the release date price was.........will wait out see whats out there. 

[zap99]

22 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Is it me, or are the prices for the cruises expensive at the moment? It is usually cheaper to book early, but I can't see it this time. Just curious what others think.

They seem to have adopted a policy of dropping prices after I have paid a deposit. Obviously aimed at getting my booking early. We won't be falling for that trick a third Time. Late booking for us.

 

[Snow Hill]

4 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

If you are flexible then booking late seems to be the best option. However it can be troublesome for those of.us who have children and are limited to school holidays. 

We looked at a xmas cruise to carribean 2225 and decided no way would.i pay what the release date price was.........will wait out see whats out there. 

I know booking ahead can get you what you want, but booking 202 years ahead😂

[tring]

Our agent  has booked our new season cruise for us, but we could not get the same cabin as we had booked for the previous cruise as a B2B, but will only have to move next door.  It is possible that cabin was allocated to another Azura cruise of a different length (perhaps the 15 night cruise instead of the 16 night one we have booked).  Those trans-location cruises are still a good price compared to the other Azura cruises though and we get an extra 10% of both cruises for our B2B booking.  So overall worth booking so far ahead and the deck C balconies, (which we have booked), still tend to sell fairly quickly - non of them available for the longer 2024 trans location cruises even now, a year out.